Ballad

“Ballad” has an inconsistent meter and no detectable rhyme scheme. The first and last stanzas are quatrains, or four-line stanzas, common in specific types of ballads. The quatrains have an even number of lines, which often portray an unstressed/stressed, or iambic, pattern, that gives off a musical quality. The rhythm of this poem also comes alive through the use of alliteration, or repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, and assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds. An example includes the “g” and “e” sounds in the following lines: “the grass excreting her / green wax is love” (Lines 7-8). Additionally, the lines of both quatrains repeat with word tweaks or changes, making the quatrains feel like a refrain, or a mantra of the speaker. The two middle stanzas, nine and eight lines, respectively, add visual imagery to explain love and tell the personal love story of the speaker, as storytelling is a common feature of ballads.